> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # M’s Move Within Striking Distance of Division Lead with Win over A’s - URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/seattle-mariners-striking-distance-al-west-division-athletics/ - Published: 2026-05-27T08:51:37.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-08T06:11:32.000Z - Author: Callaghan Bluechel - Tags: News, Analysis, Mariners, Emerson Hancock, Rob Refsnyder, Victor Robles, Josh Naylor, Mitch Garver, Cole Young, J.P. Crawford, Jose A. Ferrer, Gabe Speier, Andres Munoz \[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="5876"\] ![ Seattle Mariners second baseman Cole Young (2) fields a line drive against against the Athletics during the seventh inning at Sutter Health Park. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Lee-Imagn Images ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1d/f2/1df2f77b-83dd-4bc0-a6d2-6d1bb5df89a3/content/images/2026/10/cole-young-sacramento-format-original.jpg) Seattle Mariners second baseman Cole Young (2) fields a line drive against against the Athletics during the seventh inning at Sutter Health Park. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Lee-Imagn Images \[/caption\] Tuesday night was the first time the 2026 Mariners followed up a win of six or more run differential with a win of three or more run differential. Those benchmarks are largely meaningless in and of themselves, but they showed that the team finally managed to string together two largely complete victories, Tuesday’s a solid 4-1 win. With a lead in hand for nearly the whole contest, the M’s did well to keep the powerful Athletics lineup off the board and away from any sort of comeback; not once after the first did the hosts have the tying run at the plate. But most of all, the team finally showed life against a side of the mound they have been vexed by for a grueling stretch of time. ### The Mariners *Jump-*started their offense against a debutant Sacramento southpaw. It’s no secret that the Mariners have been horrendous batsmen against left-handers, coming into the game with a .190/.277/.315 slash line against southpaws going into Tuesday’s game. The A’s sought to exploit this fact with quite the bold move: calling up lefty pitching prospect Gage Jump from Triple-A in order to be able to face the M’s on their weaker side. Jump has a strong suite of breaking pitches, with a curve, slider, and sweeper, and his mid-90s fastball does generate a fair amount of whiffs - enough for a 122 ERA+ and 127 FIP+ in 38 innings pitched for the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators in 2026. That stuff showed in the first inning against the top of the Mariners order, as Jump struck out both J.P. Crawford and Randy Arozarena while getting some weak contact from Julio Rodríguez. But as Josh Naylor slapped an 0-1 heater into left field for a single, the M’s got something going. Rob Refsnyder, for the first time since May 11, got a base knock; even if it was a soft dribbler the other way, it still served to represent something hopeful. Mitch Garver rocked a line drive down the left field line to get the first run on the board, though the initial ruling of a two-run double was overturned when the A’s challenged that left fielder Tyler Soderstrom had put his hands up as it lodged under the wall, turning it into a one-run double and putting Refsnyder back on third, but that arrangement only lasted as long as it took for Cole Young to hit a sacrifice fly that scored Refsnyder anyway. Another sacrifice fly by J.P. Crawford scored Garver thanks to two intervening baserunners pushing the catcher to third. Unlike on Monday, the Mariners didn’t capitalize on everything they had, with that RBI being the last one of the second and Josh Naylor grounding into an inning-ending double play with the bags full at the end of the fourth (though the M’s had scratched a run across earlier on in that frame). But the team, at least early on in the game, kept alive that balance of discipline and aggression that had powered their nine runs on Monday. They selected good pitches to swing on, laid off close balls, and did damage when Jump made mistakes. The A’s starter managed five innings of four-run ball, but the plan to trip the M’s up with a left-hander did not work. ### Víctor Robles had a solid game with the stick and Rob Refsnyder got on thrice, providing hopeful signs for the righty Mariners. Powering much of the Mariners’ woes against lefties for the past two months has been the twin facts that the guy they brought in specifically to hit against them has been in the mother of all slumps while their other (perhaps more defensive-focused with fits and starts of batting upside) right-hander was stuck on the IL. Robles made quite the impression on Tuesday, going 3-3 with a double, his first extra-base and multi-hit showing since March 28 and his first three-hit game since September 15, 2024\. All three of them left the bat at 95 miles an hour or more with two of them over 100 miles an hour off the bat, a good sign for a guy who hasn’t had a high hard-hit rate at any point in his career. His whole profile relies on contact, so getting better contact is step one for any version of Robles that is productive with the bat. Refsnyder too had a good showing, though he had the good luck - a phrase nearly unheard of in regards to that player all season long - of two very generous hit by pitch calls (one hit the knob of his bat and the other didn’t seem to hit anything, though it was ruled to have grazed his shirt). Those two free bags joined on the back of his aforementioned single. Unlike Robles, however, who truly mashed, Refsnyder only had the one hit in two at-bats, getting called out on strikes after taking a 3-2 pitch on the plate. An overabundance of backwards Ks is a good sign of an overly passive approach, and so Refsnyder isn’t quite out of the weeds yet when it comes to finally putting in good contact quality. But his outing on Tuesday was as good a start as any. ### Emerson Hancock dealt early and spun out of jams late to wring six scoreless in Sacramento. Of all six starting-quality pitchers on the M’s roster, Emerson Hancock has been one of the most consistent, with a 2.78 ERA, 3.57 FIP, and 1.005 WHIP coming into Tuesday’s matchup. And this was all done with a shapeshifting pitching style; sometimes Hancock had been the pitch-to-contact groundballer he had been coming up through the system, other times he was the pinpoint strikeout machine that saved him from the brink of bullpen relegation. Some of the most efficient outs of Hancock’s career came in the first four innings. The A’s were being over-aggressive early in counts against cutters and four-seamers that always seemed to find the awkward sides of the lumber. Even with a sweeper that he couldn’t control very well, Hancock threw just 12 pitches in the first, nine in the second, six in the third, and 10 in the fourth. His efficiency was aided by the fact that no Athletic reached base in those innings, a perfect four innings. Hancock’s control issues with the sweeper continued in the fifth against leadoff man Brent Rooker, unable to quite find a zone between too far off the plate for a swing and too far on the plate for a miss. Rooker reached as a full count sinker flew up out of the zone, ending the perfect game bid after four frames. The no-hitter broke on the very next pitch as Tyler Soderstrom shot one into center field, giving the Athletics two on and nobody out. And yet Hancock buckled down and kept the A’s off the board in that frame. A flyout and a popout were the end results of Jeff McNeil and Zach Gelof’s five combined foul balls before Lawrence Butler shanked a weak groundout for the final out. The sweeper continued dogging Hancock as he pitched into the sixth. While his other stuff would slightly miss - though his overall control deteriorated to the point that he walked Carlos Cortes on five non-sweepers - the hurler seemed to have a lot of trouble finding his release point with the sweeper, and one backed up enough on him that it hit Shea Langeliers later in the frame. Hancock yet again worked his way out of danger, but the 31-pitch fifth and the 19-pitch sixth were enough to shake his flow and jack up his pitch count. Manager Dan Wilson pulled the plug at that point, and the relievers took the ball from there. ### Gabe Speier returned and pitched a solid inning, though concerns still linger with him and Andrés Muñoz. The M’s got the news on Tuesday that they had been awaiting for nearly a month: their bullpen was at full strength. Gabe Speier, who had been out with left shoulder inflammation, returned to the roster, and Seattle played him during the eighth inning of Tuesday’s game. Jose A. Ferrer had spun a squeaky seventh to keep Speier at a four-run cushion. Speier didn’t look quite as sharp as his fellow southpaw, however, and had to deal with a one-out hit batsman thanks to a sinker that got away from him. He only threw one slider all inning, sticking with just four-seamers and sinkers, but the heater duo worked well enough to fan Nick Kurtz. Langeliers absolutely rocked one with Henry Bolte on second, but Speier was fortunate enough that the bullet found Arozarena’s glove for a harmless out. Speier still seems to have taken a step back from 2025, though his injury obviously derailed things and he will have to get back in a groove. Although he still has a solid 2.70 ERA, an expected FIP (a stat that replaces the home run component of FIP with fly balls) well north of four suggests that he has gotten lucky with fly balls not becoming homers. Fly balls kept becoming bombs for closer Andrés Muñoz, however. It was still a four-run game when he entered, so he didn’t get the save, but the game did contract to 4-1 as Soderstrom knocked one over the fence with one out. His stuff was otherwise solid as he finished the game, though his elevated 4.79 ERA is probably close to its high-water mark for the year; at least, the Mariners would certainly hope so. ### On Deck The Mariners have the opportunity to slide back into first place on Wednesday, as the M’s and A’s are separated by just a half game in the standings. Even still, they would be a game back of .500, but progress for the struggling team has to come one game at a time. Logan Gilbert will be pitching in the matinee against Athletics left-hander Jeffrey Springs, who Sacramento moved up in the rotation in order to give the M’s more lefties to face. Seattle did well to improve their pedigree in that regard on Tuesday, but as always with the team in the first two months, consistency is the thing they need most.